How did we get here?

Most of us have seen them. The commercials for Wonderful Pistachios. Like the one with Manny Pacquiao where he cracks them open with a “knockout punch.” Kind of clever I guess.

Well we were watching the Food Network on Sunday night and there was a new (or at least, new to me) version of these commercials. It told us how a dominatrix would open a pistachio (on command apparently). Really? We’ve become a society that just accepts this as a normal thing?

Of course the worst part was that I was watching with my kids. One is 14 and the other is 11. So now my 11 year old is wondering what a dominatrix is and why she dresses like that. My 14 year old might be too but he didn’t act like he noticed it. So now I have to try to tip toe around someone’s deviant sexual practices because there are sexual fetishes parading in front of my kids on, of all things, the Food Network.

I remember when Food Network used to show you how to cook food. Now it’s in large part just cooking competitions or shows about diners (Guy Fieri actually does both). While I miss week long celebrations of Thanksgiving and its history and a month of getting ready for Christmas this seems too far. Have we really gotten to the point as a culture that we think it’s a good thing that we should have to screen a program on making cake and candy, not for content of the show but to make sure the ads aren’t trying to sexualize our children?